JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is
walking a tightrope in the wake of this week's Oslo peace talks that
produced some small hope of a lasting peace in the Middle
East.

Barak returned from tri-party talks with Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton charged with
two huge tasks. He must push the peace process ahead -- and
maintain the support and goodwill of the Israeli people.

Barak has vowed to forge a peace settlement by following the
policies of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin, whom he calls his "mentor" -- but not everyone is
convinced Barak has the courage to follow where Rabin led.

"Rabin had a greater sense of the historical dimension,"
Palestinian Council member Hanan Ashrawi said."He was quite
willing to take risks which Barak is not willing to take.
Barak seems reluctant, begrudging, hesitant in terms of the
peace process."

Rabin was gunned down by an Israeli opponent of the peace
process in 1995.

The road to a permanent pact between Israel and the
Palestinians meanwhile remains blocked by many obstacles.
Among them are a bitter disagreement over Israeli settlements
on the West Bank -- and the status of Jerusalem.

Palestinians want all the settlements removed, while Barak
has sanctioned the removal of only some of them.

Where Rabin was seen as dismissing the claims of the
settlers, Barak is blamed for being too supportive.

"Barak is going to the other extreme, he is giving the
settlers too much influence, too much power," Ashrawi said.

But Israeli political analyst Akiva Eldar said Barak has to
keep one eye on the prize offered by the peace process -- and
the other on preserving support from the Israeli electorate.

"When he talks to the Palestinians he thinks about a
referendum in Israel ... He is focusing on the Israeli that
still doesn't trust Arafat, that still remembers the
terrorist attacks," Eldar said.

Jerusalem is a complex knot of political, social and
religious problems that Barak and Arafat must reconcile.
Against Israel's claim for a Jerusalem united as its capital,
Arafat continues to lay claim to the city as the Palestinian
capital as well, at least the eastern section, which Israel
captured in the 1967 war.

In a city where Palestinians and Israelis live in close
proximity, there is no easy solution.

"In Jerusalem you have the symbolic level, you have a
municipal level, you have a security level, you have a
territorial level and you have a religious one," Israeli
Justice Minister Yossie Berlin said.

A possible solution may lie in expanding Jerusalem, rather
than re-dividing it, analysts say. It's an idea that Israeli
government sources say is being entertained seriously by
Barak.

But that may be too big a leap for many Palestinians.

"You can't simply redefine Jerusalem. The Palestinian claim
is based on legality, on the international recognition that
the situation created by the war in '67 is not valid,"
Ashrawi said.